How To Guide - 5 Ways to Safeguard your Mental Health as a Micro Business Owner

Have you sat down and thought about your own mental health recently? I mean seriously considered how you are....really? It's a bonkers world out there and we're all managing multiple threads in our lives and that's usually before we've done any work.

It's very easy to assume how we feel is just how we are now. We may think that this is as good as it gets in the current global climate. But is that really the case? Isn't it easy to simply let the drip, drip of feeling not so great continue until you're in quite a puddle of something less fun?

As micro business owners, our mental health is as important as the cashflow report. We need to look after the health of our mental wellbeing in the same way we spend time tying to look after the health of our bank balance. But do we? I know from my own experience, it's very very easy to let stress become part of daily life or 'get used' to not sleeping well.

So what can we do to safeguard our mental health as the owner of a very small business that runs alongside a full on life? Here are some pointers to help, that I would recommend you take some time to ponder and consider.

1. Hard and soft time. This is a concept that has been written about my coaches and mental health experts and is a way to look at our time. We all know that there are periods of our lives that are 'hard' from the point of view of how we're spending our time. You might be 'busy' at work to get to a deadline. You might be looking after a poorly relative who will get better. Perhaps you're without a car for a few weeks and are having to rearrange all your schedules. However 'hard time' mustn't last. We need to balance it out with soft time. This might be a normal life setting of some work, some rest, some leisure time and perhaps even a break. When life feels good we naturally sway between hard and soft time. However, if you're stuck in hard time for too long it will tell you two things. Firstly, you (a human) can't keep that up and there will eventually be a consequence (bad sleeping patterns, raised stress, difficulty making decisions, shorter temper etc etc). Secondly, it tells you that something has to change. Your business model, getting some help, rearranging your schedules and so on.

2. RAG rate yourself. 'RAG' rating is a familiar business concept. Red, amber, green can be used as a way of quickly assessing where a project is up to, how the marketing is working or where you are compare to a set of goals. How about RAG rating youself? Identify what your own 'red flags' are, what might identify 'amber warnings' in your life and when life feels nice and green. For example, you may consider that waking early in the morning or starting to get headaches are amber warnings that life is taking over a little. It's very tempting at this point to double down and try harder or just push through. However, you might already be familiar with what happens when things turn to red flags. Perhaps you get migraines, your IBS flares up, you feel isolated or have stopped connecting with friends. Perhaps you feel panicky much of the time. Consider where you want to draw the lines of assessment here and RAG rate yourself, maybe at the end of each week to see how you're diong specifically so that you can take action before things go red!

3. Invest in yourself. When was the last time you invested in the inside of yourself? You might go for a regular haircut or visit a cafe with a friend, but would you consider some proper investment in the internal you? You could dive into therapy of course, but there are other options too. Coaching perhaps, joining a retreat day, spending time learning how to meditate or treating yourself to some new self help books or a confernece to help? This level of investment will help you find additional resilience, new understanding and thinking and support a more robust mental health in the long run.

4. Morning pages. Julia Cameron wrote a book called 'The Artist's Way' and introduced the concept of morning pages. A process of writing down anything that comes into your head without thoughts, analysis or hesitation - first thing in the morning as you wake up. It's designed to be a way of 'clearing out' the rubble in your mind and help you uncover thinking, offload negative feelings or anything else that supports emptying your mind of some of its clutter. This may feel extreme but there are many many other options to creating a daily habit of writing down how you are, feel or setting your mindset. 'The 6 Minute Diary' is another way to journal but with more prompts. Which ever way feels natural to you, cultivating a writing or journalling habit can be a game changer in knowing yourself and clearing out the clutter.

5. Find the right people. As obvious as it sounds, it's vital to have the right people in your corner to turn to in good times and bad. Research shows that our own mood and wellbeing is heavily influenced by those we spend the most time with. If you live with someone who is a 'glass half empty' person, it may be something you can't or don't want to change, but simply noticing that their approach isn't your own or is perhaps influencing how you see the world can really make a difference. For example, you might say to yourself, that their mindset is their own, and you're making a consious effort to make your own mindset rules up. Find people who share your micro business journey or seek out new friends to share your feelings with. On this note....consider your intake of news media. I was brought up to believe that understanding the news and what's going on in the world was my duty. But, the world of media is not that anymore. We can stay informed and make stands about what we believe and support causes that we can help, but we (humans) can't manage 24 hour rolling headlines and nor should we.

   
   

   I hope that some of these have been reminders that leave you curious and with a feeling of being supported. Heading to the Hub to chat with fellow members ma be the perfect starting point to your renewed wellbeing journey. Just know that you're not alone and I'm just an email away with signposts and connections.